ME LISTENING TO CONVOLUTED BACKSTORY
Convoluted backstory feels right to the writer, but it’s bad. Good backstory is concise, gaspworthy gossip. Not then-he-said, but-she-thought stuff that could barely keep a therapist awake.
Read moreIAMA Professional Hollywood Script Reader AMAA • /r/Screenwriting
IAMA Professional Hollywood Script Reader AMAA • /r/Screenwriting lifeascaty: Hi, /r/screenwriting! I am a professional Hollywood script reader. I am considered part of the coveted Hollywood inner circle known as… For anyone who might find it useful or interesting, here’s a Reddit AMA with a Hollywood script reader. Of course, if you want to speak…
Read moreWriting advice so obvious it gets overlooked:
witchlingfumbles: Figure out whose story it is, why it’s their story, and why it’s their story now. Knowing whose story it is is sometimes more important than (and sometimes intrinsically linked with) knowing what the story is and how to tell it. It was the best comment I ever got from a writing group and…
Read morepixiepienix: look at this fragile delicate flower of a man look at how precarious his value and identity is wonder at the marvel that is masculinity The reason I post this is because it is full of visual information that fills readers with questions and confusion. It’s obviously based on a trope that goes back…
Read morewriterdirector: Great #screenwriting advice by @ruth_atkinson about the diff between reading a movie and watching one @scriptmag Screenwriting for Readers vs. Audiences By Ruth Atkinson, Story Editor & Script Consultant Here’s a screenwriting truth. A script is for READERS. A film is for AUDIENCES. Seems obvious, right? Clearly, you can’t have a film without a script…
Read moreCharacters of Color
I want CoC. All colors. All orientations. All those stories. Do you understand that all the other stories have already been told? A thousand thousand times? We live in a world of stories, and we can’t underestimate how we are placed in slots by those stories. Fat girls don’t deserve adoration, black girls can’t be…
Read moreNotes from a Screenreader: This Stake Is Undercooked
nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. Stakes are the thing in the story that makes a reader care what happens. Your fun characters and snappy dialogue and careful plotting literally do not matter if nothing much will happen if the plan doesn’t come together. And the stakes can be anything, really, as long as…
Read moreOscar-Winning Django Unchained, by Quentin Tarantino. Also, this is a good time to bring up that you don’t need to choreograph complex fight scenes on the page. They aren’t very interesting to read.
Read morelifeascaty: I have to read over a script I wrote a couple of years ago, but two pages in and I’m not sure if I can stand the embarrassment. Ahahahahahahahahahaha. Same.
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